Nissan,how could you Screw Up so BADLY

[derkraut]

Xtremeflyer: I believe you've stated the issue(s) accurately and clearly. But imho, I don't think it will change anything, and I doubt that Nissan will respond with any specific action.

 

[pksd1]

Nissan has recently added an extra layer of CS support as “Nissan Consumer Affairs”. These people are much better trained to handle us and the situation. They are very professional and polite, they have little more information than the regular CS people. From the first day we were in contact with them about three weeks ago, they have called us everyday to provide daily status. Which always was “sorry about the delay but we can’t tell you anything about the delivery status”. They are there to calm you down and give you hug, but nothing more than that.

Unfortunately the root problems are being ignored , and I don’t think Nissan is going to change anytime soon, or if they do make minor changes, they will not come back and explain to us why those problems existed in the first place.

 

[BlueSL]

But imho, I don't think it will change anything, and I doubt that Nissan will respond with any specific action.

If we are to set our expectations by Nissan's prior actions, you are right, Derkraut. That would be very sad indeed.

I am hoping Mr. Carolin will take Xtreme's letter as an opportunity to reverse course.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

I don't expect any business to give a formal statement on their internal issues, that's unrealistic.

The 1980's called and wants their business PR model back.

This simply is not true any more. When Playstation's network goes down, people want to know why and what's being done to fix it. Sony responds.

Today, Verizon's 4G network is down. Do they hide behind a clueless CS?
No.
http://twitter.com/#!/VerizonWireless/status/63231173614243841

Nissan would have CS telling people "No it's not. You're mistaken. It's working just fine. We never said it would be up. Who told you it's down. That's just internet nonsense. Why, some people are connecting right now. I'm certain of it. I'm connected. According to my records, you are also connected right now. Yes, you are, it just doesn't look like it. The icons are wrong. Maybe your phone is broken. You shouldn't believe what you read. Our network is fine. Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

Look -- delivery screwups are not "internal issues". They're the most public-facing issue there is! There are more orders than cars, and this is the image they're screwing up today.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

And another thing -- I intend to beat the holy hell out of Nissan when I get that JD Powers survey.
Without mercy or remorse.

I want the highest echelons of their mute & worthless customer PR to feel something move underneath them.

 

[copdoc]

Wow. Interesting thread to read.

If I were a car company, I'd probably put my money into designing . . . wait for it . . . cars. How much of the purchase price of your car do you want Nissan to spend on the vast number of people it would take to get you all immediate information, customer support, etc.? Is it enough to hire a person per 10 dealers? One in each port?

 

[BlueSL]

And another thing -- I intend to beat the holy hell out of Nissan when I get that JD Powers survey.
Without mercy or remorse.

I want the highest echelons of their mute & worthless customer PR to feel something move underneath them.

Here are the geniuses Nissan has hired for the Leaf rollout. http://www.zocalogroup.com/

Apparently, Zocalo-Nissan-Maritz have concluded that public perception can be manipulated without actually treating customers right. Every person I have explained the "out of order" delivery issue to has been appalled.

What's the downside of continuing to remain mute and do nothing? Time will tell.

 

[Herm]

Nissan has bad communication and very poor customer service but they don't need to explain anything other than "we are experiencing delays", etc. ANyone could cancel and tell Nissan what to do with their CS, or put up with the BS but don't expect much else because they have proven to be clueless and will likely continue to do so.

Nissan has no experience dealing directly with the buying public, previously they only had dealers as customers .. and those you can treat like dogs. With their intention to do the good thing and avoid gouging they have created lots of customer animosity, and incurred expenses in having to hire a CS company (millions $$).

No good deed goes unpunished.

 

[deetime7767]

And another thing -- I intend to beat the holy hell out of Nissan when I get that JD Powers survey.
Without mercy or remorse.

I want the highest echelons of their mute & worthless customer PR to feel something move underneath them.

As an insider, I feel that like I was "left alone standing there holding the bag". They should hear from the multitude of the dis-enchanted. Mis-steps, miscues, errors, failing and all are to be expected to some degree with an undertaking like this LEAF Customer Journey in buying a LEAF. That said, accountability, honesty, empathy and well-placed goodwill must be applied in the timely fashion to have any chance of repairing their (Nissans') reputation and credibility.

 

[smkettner]

Nissan has no experience dealing directly with the buying public, previously they only had dealers as customers .. and those you can treat like dogs. With their intention to do the good thing and avoid gouging they have created lots of customer animosity, and incurred expenses in having to hire a CS company (millions $$).

I wonder if the standard dealer ordering system works the same as the consumer system?
Might have been better to just let the dealers take the RAQ and place the order through the existing system.
Why reinvent the wheel? Why spend so much to do it so wrong?

Of course hindsight is always clearer.

 

[thankyouOB]

I am as whipsawed as the rest of you, but Nissan is going ahead full bore with its marketing campaign to the wider world.
They seem to feel that a one- or two-month delay and leaping deliver dates for some 500 customers is not going to be a big deal if the CAR IS GOOD.

There are ads for the Leaf all over the internet and on TV. They are bold and make a statement about no oil and no pollution. They are targeting a market that is environmentally sensitive and also dollar conscious. They are making a big bet that gas prices are not going back down to $2.50 or $3 a gallon, but instead will rise.

All the glitches over deliveries will get glossed over (not that it explains it all) by the disasters in Japan.
Some of you may have read about how Toyota production is greatly affected and dealers are being told that Prius orders won't be filled for months.

Our set of woes won't get traction with the public, and if we get our cars by June, many of us will just say OK--if the car is all that we expect.

(my order moved farther out in May today by several days, and is more than a week past the 7-day notice on April 19.)

 

[DaveEV]

I sent this letter to Brian Carolin, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Nissan North America. I'll let everyone know if I get a response.

Well said - agree completely - you appear to be in the same boat as me (reserve Apr 20 10, order Oct 10, first name David). I see lots of late Jan cars being delivered or to be delivered soon which does not instill confidence about remaining CA rebate funds... My chats/calls to CS have not been productive. Like you, I am also on the escalation list - they should be following up with me regularly via phone. CS admitted to the out-of-order delivery mistake and say they have a couple weekly meetings about status updates. Of course - none of this is new information...

I am as whipsawed as the rest of you

You shouldn't be - your car will be delivered very soon. There's nothing about your late Jan order that stands out from all the others. Congrats!

 

[EVDRIVER]

I don't expect any business to give a formal statement on their internal issues, that's unrealistic.

The 1980's called and wants their business PR model back.

This simply is not true any more. When Playstation's network goes down, people want to know why and what's being done to fix it. Sony responds.

Today, Verizon's 4G network is down. Do they hide behind a clueless CS?
No.
http://twitter.com/#!/VerizonWireless/status/63231173614243841

Nissan would have CS telling people "No it's not. You're mistaken. It's working just fine. We never said it would be up. Who told you it's down. That's just internet nonsense. Why, some people are connecting right now. I'm certain of it. I'm connected. According to my records, you are also connected right now. Yes, you are, it just doesn't look like it. The icons are wrong. Maybe your phone is broken. You shouldn't believe what you read. Our network is fine. Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

Look -- delivery screwups are not "internal issues". They're the most public-facing issue there is! There are more orders than cars, and this is the image they're screwing up today.

Did you consider some of the reasons unlike a natural disaster may be damaging to release. Businesses have issues that do not make sense to release and they have no obligation to be specific, like when an assembly line is faulty and keeps breaking down or whatever. Put it into perspective, it's easy to blame others for issues (networks) but there are some problems that are better kept internally for competitive reasons. I know of a couple facts that have never been released that impacted delivery that Nissan may never release and I don't blame them at all. Sometimes companies are stuck in a bad situation however they FAILED at smoothing things over, but that has nothing to do with full disclosure only poor PR and CS. I would have fired the firm doing CS and it looks like they may have done something. Regardless Nissan will feel the pain of these mistakes and may adjust accordingly. In the end they still don't seem to correct their errors but prefer to push them on customers.

 

[Sheffield]

Nissan has the perfect defense for all but a few of the most inside-baseball crowd on this blog.
No story you are going to tell will survive the earthquake and tsunami defense. it just wont work to charge them with incompetence when they country was devastated by an earthquake and nuclear disaster. It doesnt matter that you ordered in september and january folks got a car.
The country was devastated.
you think you can generate sympathy for a few hundred (if that many) people who had their order for a boutique car delayed and perhaps jumped over by other EV car fan orders during the roll out by Nissan.
I think you need to first understand the environment and second know that Nissan has a bulletproof explanation; they were making this right for all the out-of-place orders and the earthquake hit. They did the best they could. Dealers lost all their demos. Owners of dealerships got skipped over. etc.

I love your order details. You were approved to order in January and have a May date. I was approved to order in November ( though I was placing my reservation within ten minutes of the reservations opening on April 20) and my date has slipped to July. So how exactly is there any sense at all in what they have done?

What really happened was they unexpectedly changed production schedule to favor Japan so tax benefits there were preserved. Then they found, once the weather got warm, that they had a major defect (safety related or not, it is a car killer) that had to be diagnosed and patched. On top of that their PR and customer relations was incompetent.

Chevy, of all companies, managed to do that par right. Pre-orders were trackable online through every step of scheduling and production. Each customer got a personal advisor during pre-order. The only real screw-up they have is dealer pricing, which is being managed by putting the dealers on front street using the forum. And, believe it or not, you can buy a Volt right now at MSRP without any reservation. It just takes a bit of shopping. The difference in the experience is remarkable.

 

[thankyouOB]

Nissan has the perfect defense for all but a few of the most inside-baseball crowd on this blog.
No story you are going to tell will survive the earthquake and tsunami defense. it just wont work to charge them with incompetence when they country was devastated by an earthquake and nuclear disaster. It doesnt matter that you ordered in september and january folks got a car.
The country was devastated.
you think you can generate sympathy for a few hundred (if that many) people who had their order for a boutique car delayed and perhaps jumped over by other EV car fan orders during the roll out by Nissan.
I think you need to first understand the environment and second know that Nissan has a bulletproof explanation; they were making this right for all the out-of-place orders and the earthquake hit. They did the best they could. Dealers lost all their demos. Owners of dealerships got skipped over. etc.

I love your order details. You were approved to order in January and have a May date. I was approved to order in November ( though I was placing my reservation within ten minutes of the reservations opening on April 20) and my date has slipped to July. So how exactly is there any sense at all in what they have done?

I am not justifying or approving of Nissan's excuse, just saying that in the world of PR it is bulletproof. You can attack it with insider details, but in the end they have the perfect excuse, albeit they will call it an explanation.
I got lucky. I see that it is not fair.

What really happened was they unexpectedly changed production schedule to favor Japan so tax benefits there were preserved. Then they found, once the weather got warm, that they had a major defect (safety related or not, it is a car killer) that had to be diagnosed and patched. On top of that their PR and customer relations was incompetent.

Chevy, of all companies, managed to do that par right. Pre-orders were trackable online through every step of scheduling and production. Each customer got a personal advisor during pre-order. The only real screw-up they have is dealer pricing, which is being managed by putting the dealers on front street using the forum. And, believe it or not, you can buy a Volt right now at MSRP without any reservation. It just takes a bit of shopping. The difference in the experience is remarkable.

 

[BlueSL]

I sent this letter to Brian Carolin, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Nissan North America. I'll let everyone know if I get a response.

Xtreme, so has anyone at all responded to you? If so, how?

 

[xtremeflyer]

I sent this letter to Brian Carolin, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Nissan North America. I'll let everyone know if I get a response.

Xtreme, so has anyone at all responded to you? If so, how?

No response yet..

 

[tps]

you can buy a Volt right now at MSRP without any reservation.

Maybe not as many people want Volts as want LEAFs. I probably will have to wait most of a year from now to order a LEAF, but I'm not interested in the Volt even if I could buy one tomorrow. Nor does the buying experience make the car more desirable (to me). I wonder how many others share my opinions?

Another competitor would be the iMiev; Pennsylvania is a Tier 2 state for Misubishi, so I might be able to get one right around the same time the LEAF becomes available to me. My largest reservation with the iMiev is range. The LEAFs 24 kWh/100 mi LA4 is pretty much the lower end of what I'd want; I might be willing to pay extra for a 32 kWh / 130 mi LEAF, were it available. The iMiev's 16 kWh/80 mi LA4 would really be pushing it. Now, maybe in 5 years if the infrastructure is built out I'll feel differently, but right now I'd like the LEAF's bigger battery.

 

[evnow]

Problems with the car? Unavoidable, but acceptable due to Ver 1.0. Early adopters expect this and easily forgive.
Problems with the rollout? COMPLETELY avoidable and foreseeable. Unacceptable for any stage of vehicle version. Early adopters don't forgive this because it shouldn't be this messed up. Poor planning.

Actually, the rollout is completely new too - only problem is instead of Ver 1.0 it turned out to be a beta version. Poor choice of vendors they selected (both for PR and their web software) complicated matters. Nissan was simply not equipped to handle this kind of rollout and they are learning on the job.

As an earlier post pointed out - they don't deal directly with customers, but with dealers.

For all the problems, would it have been better to do the rollout in a traditional way through dealers ? We would all have been at the mercy of dealers. Probably a good poll question ...

(goes to make a poll)

update : Oh well, some problem with the poll. I'll check with Mike.

 

[jhm614]

For all the problems, would it have been better to do the rollout in a traditional way through dealers ? We would all have been at the mercy of dealers. Probably a good poll question ...

I registered as soon as I could on 4/20, I was able to RAQ in September and my Leaf was delivered within 7 months after RAQ. Although my delivery date bounced around some, I never felt like Nissan wasn't communicating with me. (I didn't have to call CS, so I never felt like I was being mislead, either). My only anxiety came from reading about the problems my fellow MNLers were having -- although the community knowledge / benefits far out way any worries I picked up.

And based on the trouble I had negotiating a discount in D/FW, I was glad I didn't have to deal directly with dealers -- at least I had some power with the RAQ process.

So put me in the "do it with the dashboard / RAQ / internet" camp.


j.